Customer Reviews

AutoMate: The Best Medicine

Juan GarciaSystems Analyst, U of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

"For us, AutoMate combines two very important functionalities: job scheduling/triggering and automation. In our initial effort when we attempted to use Launchpad and AutoIT, we were trying to combine Launchpad's job scheduling functionality with AutoIT's automation capabilities. This was a mistake. What we really needed was one powerful tool that had both the triggering and automation capabilities. In our solution, AutoMate is central to application integration - it orchestrates three critical applications used extensively at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and coordinates thousands of file and data transfers."

Since 2002, the MD Anderson Cancer Center has developed and deployed over 80 automation tasks with AutoMate. Juan calculates a hard-cost savings of approximately .8 of an FTE a year, equivalent to a savings of $150,000 with an ROI of 650% due to implementation of AutoMate tasks, not to mention all the soft costs saved with optimal nurse staffing, fewer administrative hassles, and improved ability to deliver better patient care.

Founded in 1941, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is regularly ranked the No. 1 "Best Hospital" for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report. Making its home in Houston, TX, MD Anderson Cancer Center offers care to more than 100,000 patients annually, and provides more than $215 million in uncompensated care to Texans with cancer.

First Credit Union

Frank OldaleChief Technical Officer

"What we find really useful is the power and flexibility of AutoMate. Having all of these automation shortcuts usually eliminates the need for programming, but we also have the option to use Visual Basic scripting when we have a particularly complex set of variables. We purchased the platform to handle a single task, but it has turned out to be a versatile solution that has enabled us to stretch our IT and accounting resources in many ways."

AutoMate was initially purchased to replace legacy job scheduling software because their current solution, Vinzant Software Global ECS, was too costly to maintain. What started as one task to monitor interruptions in overnight report productions, soon progressed into First Credit Union using AutoMate to automatically launch and run 19 schedule tasks as well as to executed eight unscheduled tasks that are triggered manually. According to Frank, AutoMate's efficiency has saved his five-person IT team more than 80 hours a month.

First Credit Union is headquartered in the Vancouver, B.C, metropolitan area and has over 7,100 member-owners, three bank branches, six insurance offices, a wealth management division, and $157 million in assets under management.

Why Use AutoMate For Scripting?

Tasks are built via drag-and-drop without writing a single line of code. The resulting task can emulate an actual user performing the sequence of steps.

Drag-and-drop task building enables tasks to be constructed rapidly. No programming code or writing batch files

Develop scripts that eliminate redundant, labor-intensive, computer-related activities with just a few clicks